July 30, 2025 5:00 pm
By Timothy Wasswa Kisuule
After the “Big Switch” was successfully completed, many levels of thinking changed to government procurement procedures, which led to accreditation. As a result, the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) engaged the Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) to share with its employees best practices for public procurement.
Commencing on Monday, July 28, 2025, the training comprised lectures on contract management, duties and responsibilities in the procurement cycle, procurement procedures, the public procurement legislative framework and fundamental procurement concepts. Group discussions of case studies and presentations on procurement strategy were also conducted.
The Managing Director Paul Mwesigwa, Chief Engineering & Technical Services Officer Eng. ProtazeTibyakinura, Chief Logistics and Production Officer Moses Awateh, and Head of Strategy, Compliance and Regulation Isaac Mufumbiro were among the more than 40 UEDCL employees present. The seminar was attended by employees from six different UEDCL departments. These included: ICT, Legal and Board Affairs, Projects and Construction, Logistics and Inventory, Procurement and Disposal, Corporate and Stakeholder Affairs, and Technical Services.
During the opening ceremony of the training, Mwesigwa emphasized the value of effective procurement planning and advised UEDCL employees to keep this in mind at all times. In his remarks, PPDA Executive Director Benson Turamye also emphasized how important procurement is to UEDCL’s national mission.
“The team benefited much from this training because most of them came from the private sector. We needed to familiarize ourselves with the concepts of public procurement because we are now working for a public institution, and this course provided just that. We met every learning goal we had initially set for ourselves, thus it was a successful training,” said Samson Tondo Ssemakalu, the Head of Regional Engineering Services Officer for Central Uganda, adding that the training was quite helpful, according to the UEDCL employees that participated.
Brian Joram Wandobire, Manager Systems Administrator at UEDCL, also gave the course high marks. “Because of the critical nature of the services we provide, an industry like ours is prone to rapid changes in requirements and implementation speed at delivery, making this type of targeted training crucial on a regular basis. In addition to improving our productivity by cutting lead times for the procurement of materials, labor and services while preserving quality and guaranteeing efficient contract management, this will allow teams to stay up to date with both new and existing requirements,” he stated.
Fred Wandira, UEDCL’s Manager of Substations and Underground Networks, expressed gratitude to the PPDA and UEDCL management for organizing the training.
As UEDCL just received accreditation from PPDA to, among other things, be able to ring fence procurements of over USD 1 million for Uganda-based enterprises, the training comes at a critical time for the organization. Prior to these accreditations, international bidders had to be allowed to compete for such high-value contracts. Thus, by acquiring more goods and services from domestic businesses, this new certification will allow UEDCL to further support Uganda’s economic development and progress.
